Followup: Bridge backup from hour-and-a-half tow-truck wait = Case of ‘confusion’

10:51 AM: Remember last week’s high-bridge backup, involving a lane blocked by a crash-damaged car that didn’t get towed for an hour and a half?

(Our screengrab from just before the tow truck arrived – note the police car toward the right)
City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen has just published his tale of trying to sort out how that happened, and the bottom line is:

SPD told him they thought they are legally at the mercy of whatever the driver wanted to do about getting towed.

But – the City Attorney told Rasmussen – they weren’t.

So, Rasmussen writes, SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole promises she will “have officers trained to eliminate the confusion.”

You can go here to read what he went through to find this out (including the behind-the-scenes timeline of last week’s incident, which largely matches what we had reported, including a mention at one point of a possible 2-hour tow-truck wait).

P.S. Rasmussen adds that an even-longer delay from earlier this year – remember the 4-mile, 5-hour Highway 99 closure in June? – will get a review in the council Transportation Committee, which he chairs, at 9:30 am December 5th, along with “SDOT and SPD’s new emergency incident response plan for these types of major closures.” (You can read the “after-action report” about that incident here.)

ADDED 10:39 PM: Councilmember Rasmussen shares this forwarded e-mail sent department-wide by Chief O’Toole tonight:

From: O’Toole, Kathleen
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 5:33 PM
Subject: Impeding Traffic

The ability to move vehicles and people about the city can be seriously impeded by a single blocking vehicle. During a recent incident on the West Seattle Bridge, traffic was unnecessarily delayed for hours pending the arrival of a tow truck. Officers should know that a vehicle may be impounded WITHOUT prior notice if “the vehicle is impeding or is likely to impede the normal flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic.” (SMC 11.30.040) If an owner’s selected tow company is not able to respond in a timely manner, the officer should request an impound via Communications to have the impeding vehicle removed from the scene promptly.
(http://www.seattle.gov/police/publications/manual/06_120_impounding_Vehicles.html)

If disabled vehicles are not impeding the flow of pedestrian or vehicle traffic, owners may request tow companies of their choice.

Kathleen M. O’Toole
Chief of Police

LivesInWS November 21, 2014 (11:23 am)

Thank you Councilmember Rasmussen for sorting out this mess.

B November 21, 2014 (11:43 am)

Wasn’t there another story quite recently about something else that SPD didn’t know they could do? Like request that the low bridge not open during incidents like this? Almost makes one suspect that they want traffic to be a mess – this one seems to just be common sense.

skeeter November 21, 2014 (11:48 am)

Well done Tom. I wonder how many more city problems can be solved simply by lifting back the curtain…

elikapeka November 21, 2014 (11:56 am)

Thank you, Councilman Rasmussen. Your responsiveness and engagement is appreciated.

flimflam November 21, 2014 (12:04 pm)

so the cops don’t even know the laws they are paid to enforce?

ChefJoe November 21, 2014 (12:40 pm)

The response can be fairly rapid. 911 dispatch can submit tow requests directly (appendix b of the SPD lincoln towing contract audit says so).

http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/CityAuditor/auditreports/VIMSFinalReport.pdf

ChefJoe November 21, 2014 (12:46 pm)

But the root cause was the SPD not treating this as a “impound immediately for the sake of clear traffic” situation and instead treating it like an incident on a non-critical roadway.

BTW, here’s the other followup you guys posted on this:
https://westseattleblog.com/2014/11/of-bridges-buses-and-boulevards-west-seattle-transportation-coalitions-november-toplines/

metrognome November 21, 2014 (2:18 pm)

@B — SPD as no authority over the low level bridge; the Coast Guard has jurisdiction as it is on a navigable waterway. They have been asked several times to require that that bridge remain closed during commute hours, as is the case with some other Seattle drawbridges. So far, they have not restricted that bridge’s hours of operation. Rasmussen has indicated he will renew this request. In any event, given the volume of truck traffic at that time of the morning, I doubt having the low level bridge available would help alleviate congestion very much.

bolo November 21, 2014 (3:12 pm)

@B (“Wasn’t there another story quite recently about something else that SPD didn’t know they could do?”), Maybe you’re thinking of this similar situation (2-1/2 hour am bridge lane blockage caused by leaving an SDOT intern in charge during rush hour):
https://westseattleblog.com/2013/12/what-really-happened-in-the-de-icer-debacle-liquid-applied-twice-the-rate-it-should-have-been-sdot-admits/
(Third and fourth paragraphs)

And it looks like made a common-sense request at that time too, calling for “monitoring (traffic) at least 6-9 am and 4 to 7 pm, (with) a plan for rapidly towing and clearing obstructions, and real-time information for the public.” That would include every tool available – text alerts, Twitter, the readerboards installed over major arterials/bridges.”

bolo November 21, 2014 (3:16 pm)

Oops, that would Councilmember Rasmussen who made the common-sense request. Should have typed:
And it looks like Councilmember Rasmussen made a common-sense request at that time too, calling for “monitoring (traffic) at least 6-9 am and 4 to 7 pm, (with) a plan for rapidly towing and clearing obstructions, and real-time information for the public.” That would include every tool available – text alerts, Twitter, the readerboards installed over major arterials/bridges.”

West Seattle since 1979 November 21, 2014 (5:20 pm)

Than you, Councilmember Rasmussen.

pupsarebest November 21, 2014 (7:11 pm)

Do our cops know they can (and should) stop and ticket texting/cell phone yakking drivers?
How about the heavily-tinted windows I see on so many vehicles?
Isn’t that illegal?
Do they know they could ticket such vehicles when they’re parked, without even the bother of pulling the offender over?

au November 21, 2014 (8:51 pm)

“SPD told him they thought they are legally at the mercy of whatever the driver wanted to do about getting towed.”
Is that a joke? Sounds like a petulant teenager comment,

WSB November 21, 2014 (8:58 pm)

That was not an exact quote, it’s my paraphrasing – see the Rasmussen-website link for the exact language.

sophista-tiki November 21, 2014 (11:12 pm)

So if the cops have your car impounded because no one wants to wait for a tow truck,,,,, Doesn’t that mean the car owner has to pay to get their car out of impound? Seems like a “screw you” and a gigantic double standard. As long as everyone else isn’t inconvenienced right.

ChefJoe November 22, 2014 (9:05 am)

@sophista-tiki
there’s many locations where a breakdown is subject to immediate removal. In the state I learned to drive in, a cruiser would often use their push-bar to push a vehicle into a breakdown lane while waiting for a tow. If no breakdown lane existed, they always had the right to tow immediately because of the danger of stopped vehicles in the roadway (and typically the driver being in the path of danger).

Sorry, comment time is over.